Jan. '17- Week 3- Sunbeams and Nursery, Pallet Expander, Letter Pp, Inauguration, Snow!, More Ben's BD

Sunday was a big day!  It was Anna's first time in Sunbeams and Bethany's first time in Nursery!  

Anna was a little nervous at first, but she warmed up quickly to her teacher, Sis. Jamison, who Ben had last year.  I was spying on her through the door window and found her digging for gold. ;) 

Bethany did great in Nursery as long as I was always near her.  And 2 1/2 months later that's still
true. :(   I had stake choir practice in the evening.  

Monday the kids had no school.  McKenna got her pallet expander put on.  The worst part for her was actually having to brush with MINT toothpaste after it was put on.  Poor thing cried and cried and spit into a cup for a good 30 minutes!  We went straight from there to get Keva Juice smoothies for lunch.  We have to crank it once every other night, so roughly 25 cranks.  I've been so impressed with how little she actually complains about it.  We also kind of make fun of her for how she says some words.  ;) 

The kids had friends over to play in the afternoon. 

Making clay charms.

Tuesday Anna learned about letter Pp in preschool.  They made pizzas.  

Painted, ate Popcorn during Puppet shows, did Puzzles and had a Pillow fight! 

That afternoon I swept & blew out the garage and McKenna tried out a tumbling class after hip hop, which she didn't really care for.  

Wednesday was a rough day for me.  It was super busy and full of running the kids around everywhere which is normal for a Wednesday.  However, on top of that, I felt like Ben's behavior was CRAZY for most of the day.  I'm not proud that I yelled at him a bunch.  For example, I needed to help the YW practice a song they're singing in church.  So we went straight from picking up Ben from music to the church at 6pm.  So it's dinner time too and the kids are restless.  Well, Ben and Anna decided to run back and forth from me (holding Bethany on my hip while trying to lead music) to the wall.  They were very distracting and disruptive during that practice so much so that I lost my place several times while leading.  Needless to say, once we got in the car I kind of let them have it and told them how naughty and embarrassing it was that they couldn't even sit still for 5 minutes while the girls sang.  After dinner, baths, and bed time, I was able to snuggle Ben a little and try to make up for my meanness of the day.  But mostly I was at a loss and needed to think of something that would help him be a better listener and more obedient.  

Thursday at preschool Anna got to have a Picnic, play the Piano and be a Piggy! 

That afternoon I listened to a podcast recommended by my sister-in-law, Brynn, from Power of Moms.  It was all about how to discipline with FUN!  The best idea I got from it was to start an "I'd Love To!" jar.  Just the thing we needed to create more peace and love in our home! Any time someone in the family is asked to do something, if the other person responds with, "I'd love to!" then we get to put a cotton ball in the jar.  When it is full, we get to go out for a treat as a family!  (*After a couple days of this jar being around, Ben was actually the child that responded the BEST to it! Hallelujah!)

I also started working on a 6 week online class for teacher relicense points about teaching financial literacy in the classroom.  

Friday was the Inauguration Day for our new president, Donald Trump.  I watched the news coverage for most of the morning and had many mixed feelings.  My thoughts are this: it's difficult to have a president I don't exactly want my children to look up to.  However, I will continually pray for him and hope that he makes wise and safe decisions for this amazing country we live in.
Anna had fun playing with McKenna's gel pens and writing on Bethany.  I'm pretty surprised Bethany actually let her.  And Bethany has a history of parts of her pajamas coming off sometime in the night.  we found her this time with her shirt totally off!!

In the afternoon Dan left for Mantua with the priests quorum for an overnighter.  Ben and Anna went to play at the Alexander's and McKenna and I made zucchini bread.  Unfortunately Ben had a fever when he went to bed that night.  

Saturday we woke up to LOTS of SNOW!  Ben still had a low fever so he snuggled ALL his stuffed animals and watched shows.  

We invited the Alexander girls down to play and sled in the snow!  

After a while outside the girls came in and we made snow cream with snow, evaporated milk, sugar, vanilla, and whip cream! 

Here's a cute video of McKenna's hip hop dance progress.   The first 30 seconds are improv, then the choreography starts.  Makes me so proud.  

Saturday night we had the January birthday Webster family dinner.  Ben got more Power Ranger stuff and was so excited!